Hurray!

November 15, 2009

It's an astoundingly gorgeous Autumn afternoon and a friend comes out with Stan and me to take a bunch of pictures of us to use for engagement/wedding stuff/whatever. The experience of having our picture taken together is an unusual one for us- normally I am the photographer. There is a lot of laughing, a bit of crying (me), and much goofing around. We're nervous in front of the camera, so we try to gain confidence by losing ourselves in humor. We try to make nice faces, but each nice face necessitates a ridiculous one to counter it and the camera keeps capturing those in-betweens. We pose next to a pond, in a field, tête-à-tête lying in a pile of leaves. We sit together under a tree, the two of us in a pool of golden sunlight surrounded by shadow. We put our hands to the earth, touch the leaves and seeds and pine cones blanketing the lawn around us. We wonder, what if we had eyes at the tips of our pinky fingers? How would our brains process the additional perspective? A breeze stirs, the afternoon light ripples and shimmers under our tree. A leaf falls near my left knee, then another. What if we looked around through our pinky eyeballs and our eyeball eyeballs at the same time? How would the resulting image composite appear to us? We're no longer self-conscious, there is no camera. We are the only ones here. We hold our pinkies out at one another looking, laughing. We are the only people, just the two of us.

What would we see if we held our hands up to our faces, looked ourselves directly in the eyes?

January 07, 2009

November 04, 2008

I am in love with democracy today. I haven't been so excited about voting since my first election after I turned eighteen in 1996. Rather, this time I was more excited, since my '96 vote for Clinton was effectively pointless in the great red state of Utah. Waiting in line at the Methodist church this morning it was all I could do refrain from cheering other voters as they emerged from the booths. "Good job!" I wanted to call out to them, "Congratulations! You did it!" I was thrilled to participate in this process with them, no matter how they voted (though let's be real here: this is Massachusetts- they voted Democrat), I felt proud of all of us and- how can I say this?- harmonious. I felt, for once, serenely harmonious with my fellow Americans. To every one of you who voted: I'm proud of you. I applaud you for engaging in this civic opportunity. Thank you. Congratulations.

white words

Also, though we've held a joint address for years, this is the first time Stan and I have gone to the polls together. After voting side-by-side this morning, then watching the votes roll in to such a thrilling result tonight, I will look back on this as among the most romantic and momentous experiences we've shared together.

Here's Walt:

Election Day, November, 1884Walt Whitman

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
'Twould not be you, Niagara--nor you, ye limitless prairies--nor
your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite--nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic
geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon's white cones--nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes--nor
Mississippi's stream:
--This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name--the still
small voice vibrating--America's choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen--the act itself the main, the
quadriennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous'd--sea-board and inland--
Texas to Maine--the Prairie States--Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West--the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling--(a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's:) the
peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity--welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
--Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify--while the heart
pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.

10. Taking a standing-room-only train to Karlsruhe, Germany to sit on the ground outside the town zoo with hundreds of multinational strangers staring at the sky and sporting funny sunglasses. Feeling awed as the clouds parted just in time to reveal the total solar eclipse.

11. Making out with a stranger.

12. Dogs, mountains, me.

13. Phoning my singingest friend from La Scala opera house.

14. Turning twenty-something (24, maybe?). First/only real birthday party I ever threw myself. Friends and family, little kids and pets and everybody all gathered in my own backyard. They like me, they really like me!

15. When I wake in the morning next to my new forever lover he opens his eyes, sees me, and sighs, "Yay!"

16. Christmastime evenings when the only light in the room comes from the tiny colordy ones on the tree.

17. WalkingPrancing out front door and down the steps of my high school right in the middle of 5thperiod while the rest of the class was in chemistry to be picked up by my older boyfriend in his car so we could go make out at hisapartment.

18. Turning twenty-one in Paris on Bastille Day.

19. Bedecking the Girls' Hideout at the cabin with a literal carpet of moss.

20. Returning to The Hideout the next day to discover that deer had been by in the night to appreciate our decorating scheme- by sleeping in it.

21. My very own puppy!

22. Walking at sunrise over prairie hills; a tiny plane flies low overhead- it's a friend of ours! We can't see him in the tiny yellow plane in the giant outrageous pink-orange sky, but I know he sees us and is waving down hello.

23. Sunday afternoon naps.

24. Paddling across the lake, the water under the canoe is so blue that, peering over the side I can see clearly every fish, every stone in the white sand.

25. Sipping a cocktail in my pajamas on the balcony of my apartment downtown, recalling that as a kid I had a fantasy of what "adulthood" would be like and this is exactly it.

November 11, 2007

Stan and mom and I spent the day walking around Cambridge in the new crisp cold. We toured campus like we do with guests (I learn a little bit more each time about the olde and hallowede Harvard grounds), visited the Cambridge Common, where you can learn about George Washington taking charge of the revolutionary troops, and Christ Church, where George & Martha used to attend services. Then we had a couple of beers at celebrated Charlie's Kitchen and did a little shopping on Harvard Square. My brother arrived in the early evening and since then the four of us have just been laughing non-stop. It's one wildly inappropriate joke after the next around here now, punctuated intermittently by song and dance. In other words: the usual. I've been notably more weepy since having family around, and more appreciative of Stan than ever, too. I'm basically just a big, sappy pile of joy basking in the presence of three of my most comforting and most hilarious loved ones. It's cathartic and delicious.

November 05, 2007

I am at work and ought to be concentrating, but all I can think about is our couch which is to be delivered within the next four hours and which Stan is sweetly awaiting at home.

UPDATE: It's there! I can't wait to go home and put it together. Also I am a shopping second-guesser extraordinaire so I am nervous about the color. I wanted this shade:

but that cover was not available for the sofa we wanted, so we settled on this one:

Which means we will now have the same sofa in the same hue as approximately nine hundred and seventy three million other young urban people with small apartments, but oh well. After two months of taking turns in our single armchair I'm just excited to have a place where the two of us can read or watch a movie while both seated, comfortably, at the same time.

March 31, 2007

We've been having perfect spring weather around here lately; warm, but not too warm; sunny, with a little rain thrown in, gorgeously lit at every hour of the day and very romantic. Everywhere I look I see animals going about together in pairs- the Canada geese fly over in pairs instead of vees these days; there are two horses on each pasture at the stables to the north of our home; the birds at our feeder- doves, quail, house finches and goldfinches- arrive together in matched sets, the male goldfinches seeming to grow a brighter yellow each day as they wine and dine their lady friends on Black Oil sunflower seeds. There's one male and one lady sheep in each pen over at the farm (I wonder if we might see a couple of little lambs over there soon), and there are two new little piggies I've been admiring greatly as well. They happen to be twin brother piglets, but hey- to each his own in this romantic season, no? A couple of lucky male creatures keep harems. Our neighborhood pheasant, Kevin, is one, and there is a new male doing a lot of puffing up and strutting in the formerly ladies-only turkey hutch at the farm. I'll show you his picture- he's at once splendid and revolting, see there?

I can't decide which is more impressive- the angry neck warts or the flaccid nose flap. Here's one of him all floofed up for the hens:

I think it's awesome how even though he has a number of crumpled, broken tail feathers he's still proudly fanning those suckers out like there's no tomorrow. I picture him like an oblivious hiccupy drunk, relentlessly coming onto all the women trying to avoid him outside the bar, letting them know that, "This here turkey is one fiiine mother fucker."

Here are the piggies:

They were cute when I took this picture, but they've doubled, possibly tripled in size since they came to the farm and are growing more disgusting by the moment.

Lastly (and bestly), one of the mares over at the stables on the other side of our house has had a new little foal. He is gawky and gangly and lurches around with his long legs and pointy face and little beard and caterpillar tail. I can hardly get enough of him. Look:

In college tour news, Stan has visited three of our top picks in the Midwest and has two trips east coming up in the next week, then (yikes!) the official decision must be made. We've been leaning toward settling on a university in what I like to call a "major urban metropolis," so I'm trying to make the most of my farmy weekends while I can!

January 18, 2007

Good morning. What are you doing? I'm drinking Lady Grey tea and eating Eggs Athwart Toast in the kitchen of our beautiful house while watching birds visit the feeder right outside the window (amateur birding being my new consuming passion with which I am boring everyone I know nearly half to death). The other thing I am doing, with deep and abiding pleasure, is typing here at my computer which (after many woes involving bad service and being in an unincorporated area and much other stupidity) is FINALLY, gladly, set up and running and connected to this new-fangled technology I hear they're calling "Internet." This brings us out of the stone ages and back into the world of modern conveniences such as Listening to Music and Being in Touch with People. It's very novel and already I find myself wondering, "Whatever did we do before music and people became a part of our lives?* Good question.

This final convenience means all is just about perfect in my world, then. This, and the fact that tonight after work the two of us are hopping on a red-eye because Stan is taking me on my first ever trip to NYC. We're taking a quick weekend to explore the phylogenetic organization** of the top floor of the Natural History museum, eat, wander and spend a little time with a couple of very good friends who we don't see often enough. Most of all I am looking forward to being on vacation with my own loving cup.

Like this (only without the dog and in a major hugeantic urban metropolis rather than remote barren wilderness):

Hwre!

* Before= prior to yesterday

** Stan's current consuming passion with which he is politely NOT boring anyone nearly half to death

November 05, 2006

October 12, 2006

Psst! Hello, blog? Are you there? Hi! Today is Thursday and I feel like a million bucks. I'm drinking a really good Americano right now, I have been having rad ridiculous dreams almost every night, I like my job which keeps me busy as hell, I'm moving again soon (I know, I know- more moving! It's like a terrible joke only I can't stop telling it), it's the peak of crisp autumn climatological perfection here in the City of Salt, I have terrific friends and my relationship is satisfying and sound. So... just wanted to let you know. It's been a while, eh? I hope all is super for you out there on the web. We really should try to keep in better touch, old friend. Anyway call me sometime, or something.Love, Emily